1. Field of the Invention
The darkling beetle, [Alphitobius diapermis] tends to infest poultry houses and is an expensive nuisance because they tend to damage wood structures, insulation, and sometimes electrical wiring insulation. Some reports have mentioned that the beetle also harbours the salmonella bacteria and thus can infect the poultry flock residing in the poultry building--because the fowl eat the beetles.
[Bacillus thuringiencis] is known as a bacteria that will be taken up by various insects and their larvae and then the bacteria kills off these hosts. It has been used on the silk worm and flour moth with good success.
The invention teaches that the B.t. will be taken up by the darkling beetle and thus these beetles will be eradicated because they die after absorbing the B.t.
Lab experiments have shown that the large darkling beetle, E, Tenebrio is killed off by the B.t.; and thus by extension the small darkling beetles [Alphitobius diapermis], that infest the poultry houses, will also be killed off by the B.t. after they are exposed to it and take it up. Indeed lab experiments have shown that the B.t. is truly effective against both beetles. It is effective because it kills off the larvae of both types of beetles.
2. Description of Prior Art
The open poultry industry literature periodically reports a general dissatisfaction within the industry with control and eradication methods regarding the darkling beetle in poultry housing. It would appear that at the present time there is no satisfactory way to "kill off" or control the darkling beetle population in the poultry housing.
Some people clean out the poultry houses periodically, removing litter and poultry manure, and then spray the inside of each house with disinfectant to kill off any bacteria and darkling beetles that might still be left in the empty house.
One farm we visited a few months ago had sprayed with cresol which contains about 2% phenol; and this indeed appeared to have eradicated the darkling beetle population--since none could be found in those poultry houses. But, on the other hand, many of the fowl then populating those houses appeared stricken with various ailments that could possibly be attributed to the residual cresol/phenol. Maladies such as: semicomatose state, loss of walking ability, and so on.
Cresol/phenol is also hostile to people, and precautions have to be taken when applying the spray to the housing interiors so that the people involved do not "take up" any of the chemical mixture. It may not be possible to guarantee zero "take up" by the farm personnel, either during spraying, or later off the building surfaces, and indeed via litter dust that may have "taken up" the residual cresol/phenol.
B.t. on the other hand is generally conceded to be relatively safe for humans to handle and may be bought easily in most cities for even non-farm uses--such as gardening. So its application to poultry houses for eradication of the darkling beetle appears to present no safety/handling problems, should be relatively benign to poultry at all stages of development, and will allow healthier and thus higher quality poultry meat to be raised for the dinner table. May even lower the salmonella bacterial loading on the poultry because it kills off the salmonella carrying darkling beetles which the poultry would otherwise be ingesting. May even lower the `poultry tape worm` loading on the poultry because it kills off the tape worm carrying darkling beetles which the poultry would otherwise be ingesting.